Rayney tapped wife's phone in months before her death, court told

A man who was acquitted of murdering his estranged wife had a phone tap installed on her line in the months before her death, a court has been told.

An IT specialist has told Lloyd Rayney's phone tapping trial that he installed a recording device in the former barrister's home and instructed him on how to disconnect it.

Rayney is on trial in the West Australian District Court accused of enlisting IT specialist Tim Pearson to illegally intercept his wife's phone calls in July and August 2007 before her murder.

Mr Pearson testified today that he used Rayney's money to purchase a CRU2 device from National Communications in July 2007 and installed it in the roof space above the existing phone outlet using a ladder supplied by Rayney.

It's alleged the Rayneys had acrimoniously separated and Rayney wanted to know what Corryn Rayney was saying about him, so he asked Mr Pearson to install phone bugging equipment in the roof space above Ms Rayney's walk-in wardrobe.

Mr Pearson said he used his own discretion to complete the installation. Later, he transferred the recorded audio files onto a CD for Rayney and showed him how to play back the files.

Mr Pearson said he never removed the CRU2 from the roof space, but gave Rayney instructions about how to detach the device from its cables.